Show Reviews

Wow, this one is a classic; of my favorite shows, and I think I listened to that cassette a thousand times. As I listen to it again, let me tell you a story:

This show was billed as the "Last Show 'Till Fall!", and was coming after Phish was really starting to travel outside New England on a regular basis. Luckily for me, they were still managing to throw the standard three-night run in at the Front, almost every six weeks or so. Usually, one of those three would be all-ages (I was all of 20, and VT was just still getting serious about the drinking age and having an 'official' ID). By this time, I was starting to get hooked on this crazy musical band that wasn't the Dead. This was one of my first road-trips to see the boys outside Chittenden County, and it started in Burlington in an old, early 80's Chevy Nova. A couple VT natives and I (flatlander UVM sophmore) meandered throughout Vermont, picking up friends of friends in random locals like Johnson, then Randoph, then possibly Springfield or Weathersfield... it was getting hot and crowded in the back of the Nova by that time, and the freak show was only beginning. My brain, my brain. In trouble or in pain... Are we there yet?

Anywho... We showed up in Townsend to find Phish already deep in the second set. FUCK! We're late, because anyone who has ever tried to cross VT from east to west, or reverse, can tell you that "you can't get they'ah from he'ah", at least not in a hurry. But this was Townsend Family Park, where we could take our quarter-keg out of the trunk and haul it in, in front of the soundboard where our friends were taping the show, and get in the groove! Huzzah! I could sit, and drink some more! I could dance and be merry, life could be a dinglederry...

Happy to be out of the Nova, I realized that something special was going on here. It was a BYOB show in a small amusement park!!! Wow. I wished we had shown up on time as planned, but Phish was rocking my socks off regardless. La Grange made me almost crap my shorts, and think about maybe putting Trey up on my imaginary pedistal with 'the masters'. I had just missed Stevie Ray Vaughn at the Essex Fairgrounds, and his passing a month later (plus Brent that same summer), made me soon think that I need to see all the live music I can, EVERY TIME! Twenty-some years later, I still feel that way. You never know when it could all be over. Just GO! "One more time for Karl Yastremski!" as Page reminded us that night.

Cue the Weekapaug dance party! I think I wrote on my cassette it was weekend frog or something... It was still kinda new, and Lawn Boy was still three months away from release! As the darkness started to fall, it started to occur to us that even though Chris was there (the boys gave out cake and gifts to the crew in the 3rd set, which was "dedicated to announcing", according to Fish) it was getting dark and there were not enough lights to sustain a night set. We were late, it took seven hours to get here, and we better enjoy the 90 minutes we got. Sure enough, before we knew it, it was all over. But what a finale! Maybe the best BFFCFM I've ever heard. Take it to Mars... I hope the t-shirt lost at the Max Creek show, and the wallets and breastwitches, all got found or eaten. Not necessarily in that order. Best 13-hour round-trip road trip from Burlington, for a set and a half, I could ever imagine. Still looking for that black German Shepherd named Joco.

Review
by
Anonymous

A great show at the premier outdoor venue in New England, the Townshend Family Park. The stage was set up just on the outskirts of a golf course in the middle of a field surrounded by a river. Just a great place to see a show. I was yelling for Timber and finally got it somewhere near the end of the first set. I also love this sloppy “Mike's” > “Hydrogen” > “Groove” for some reason.

This show acts as a perfect "summary show" for the first half of 1990. Just take a look at a setlist that includes all the 1990 mainstays (Possum, Antelope, Mike's Groove, Fee, Gin) and mixes in a good amount of the newer material from the year (Bouncing, Tweezer, Horn). Thankfully, the old, horrible versions of Rift and Cavern don't turn up here.

There is nothing that makes this show so great that can be singled out as being well above average for the era. This is despite good versions of Possum and Antelope that have been rightfully singled out for jam chart inclusion. There's nothing wrong with being a solid 1990 show, but I think the reason this show has more 4 star ratings than your average 1990 show is because of Possum's inclusion on Live Bait Vol. 5 and the fact that this was a three set show in a year that didn't contain a festival.

It's not a bad show by any means. Most every song is tight and songs like Reba and Foam are finally starting to get played well on a consistent basis. But the greatest problems with any shows played in 1990 are simply the lack of setlist flow, the lack of any kind of real type II jamming, and the lack of setlist diversity. (I'm going to take a moment here to plug my favorite show from 1990: 5-4-90, a show that has the majority of the aforementioned qualities, and is definitely worth a listen.)

As for this Final Show of The Summer of 1990? Good, not great. 3 stars.

Thinking through all the Phish shows from "back-in-the-day" lately and this has got to be my personal fav. Incredible venue. Gorgeous day. Band was tight as hell for most of the show, although they did start getting sloppy in the third set (intoxicants?).

The crowd energy at this show was off the charts. In front of the stage was this wooden platform for viewers. The crowd was way too big for everyone to fit on the platform but the people who were on it morphed into a mosh pit at times and the deck was rocking and swaying for most of the show. Despite the frenetic crowd the vibe was relentlessly positive.

The show was pretty much one awesome song after another. Very long show. The Timber was face melting. The BFFCFM at the end was a perfect exclamation point.

The recording of this show on phishtracks really doesn't even begin to do the show justice. Muddy and lacking low end.

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